http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/2011/04/10/vindictive-bn-stabs-sarawak-report-portal/
Vindictive BN 'stabs' Sarawak Report portal
FMT Staff
| April 10, 2011
Sarawak Report's owner Clare Rewcastle blames BN for the DDOS attacks
on her site but that has not stopped her from putting out a new
article on Facebook.
KUCHING: Online news blog Sarawak Report, which has been disclosing
revelations on Chief Minister Taib Mahmud's extensive business empire
and unexplainable wealth running into billions of US dollars, has come
under massive attack.
According to Sarawak Report owner Clare Rewcastle Brown, the site has
been experiencing interrruptions over the past week "which culminated
in concerted attack yesterday in the UK and then going fullblown and
global overnight".
"Our web experts say it is a Distributed Denial of Service Attack
(DDOS) , the same form of attack that brought down WikiLeaks.
"They use robots to shoot bits of software to flood the server," said
Rewcastle in an email to FMT.
She blames Barisan Nasional for the attacks on her site.
She said it appeared that BN has suddenly realised the growing spread
of information about corruption in Sarwak.
"We regard it as the latest of a series of highly inept and dishonest
attempts to undermine our website.
"Clearly BN do not find themselves in a position to answer our
findings and arguments, so they have taken the cheat route instead.
"Their methods of attacking us have all be very expensive, but highly
counter-productive and have caused them to look pretty foolish in the
process.
"They can't seem to control the internet anymore. With the election
campaign underway, Taib can't seem to explain his wealth anymore," she
said.
Different counter attacks
She said BN had tried different ways of counter-attacking Sarawak
Report.
"First they tried to out-number us with 30 or so look alike sites, all
praising Taib Mahmud. Then they tried to 'piggy-back' us with a sound
alike site with an almost identical name!
"Next they started posting paid ads for their site at the top of the
google search page for Sarawak Report.
"By this time we had a loyal readership and they still made no impact
at all.
"So, now the ultimate cheat. They have thrown more money into an
attempt to knock us out altogether," she said.
She added that all latest articles will now be posted in Sarawak
Report's Facebook until the site is back up.
New article on BN's cyber war
In line with that, Rewcastle has put out a new article on the 'BN's
cyber war'
According to new report, there have been dozens of new sites which
have popped up under the control of PBB Youth Information leader,
Abdul Aziz Adenan Satem, who is the son of Adenan Satem, Taib's PBB
Information Chief. He is also Taib's nephew.
The report continues to state:
"All these sites are just like the Borneo Post and are by definition
as boring as hell with the finger-prints of BN propaganda over every
line. But, Abdul Aziz's biggest and proudest effort has been a site
called Sarawak Reports.
As they say 'imitation is the sincerest form of flattery', so of
course we all know that this means that young Abdul regards our site
to be a massive success and he wants others to come to his site
thinking they are visiting ours.
This attempt to 'piggy-back' our site is in fact a well-known tactic
by cheat marketing outfits. Such people hope that a person, looking
for say a washing machine, will Google for a reputable site and end up
by mistake purchasing from the dodgy replica site instead.
In a crass attempt to disguise their involvement in the site, they
have hosted it through an outfit in the USA, run by a fellow called
Todd Ash of Easy Internet Marketing in Scottsdale, Arizona.
His own advertising tells you all you need to know about Todd Ash, who
likes to call himself "billionaire" and aggressively threatens any
critics of his various get rich quick schemes, which range from using
water as petrol to chain marketing ventures."
Sarawak Report's latest article can be accessed at www.facebook.com/sarawakreport.
Monday, 11 April 2011
The real hero of the Libyan people
Without French help, the opposition in Libya will have no chance. The
person responsible for this is described by this article. We should
always appreciate any help that people give to us, especially when it
can tip the balance of success or failure. Of course, the young people
who fought for their rights in Libya should be congratulated but to be
real heros, they must win the fight. Otherwise, they will just be
fighters, fighting for justice. In order to win, we must use our
brains and must never be too arrogant. We must request for help
whenever we can. Many people will just help without even asking for
anything in return. Of course, it is our courtesy to repay their
kindness whenever we have the opportunities.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/02/world/africa/02levy.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
# The New York Times Reprints
This copy is for your personal, noncommercial use only. You can order
presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients
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information. Order a reprint of this article now.
April 1, 2011
By His Own Reckoning, One Man Made Libya a French Cause
By STEVEN ERLANGER
PARIS
BERNARD-HENRI LÉVY, 62, is such an inescapable figure in France — of
mockery, admiration, amusement, envy — that he is by now
unembarrassable. Making his mark young as a philosopher, he was
satirized neatly by a critic with the words: "God is dead, but my hair
is perfect."
But in the space of roughly two weeks, Mr. Lévy managed to get a
fledgling Libyan opposition group a hearing from the president of
France and the American secretary of state, a process that has led
both countries and NATO into waging war against the forces of the
Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
It was Mr. Lévy, by his own still undisputed account, who brought top
members of the Libyan opposition — the Interim Transitional National
Council — from Benghazi to Paris to meet President Nicolas Sarkozy on
March 10, who suggested the unprecedented French recognition of the
council as the legitimate government of Libya and who warned Mr.
Sarkozy that unless he acted, "there will be a massacre in Benghazi, a
bloodbath, and the blood of the people of Benghazi will stain the flag
of France."
Mr. Lévy, a celebrated philosopher, journalist and public
intellectual, gives Mr. Sarkozy sole credit for persuading London,
Washington and others to support intervention in Libya.
"I'm proud of my country, which I haven't felt for many years," Mr.
Lévy said in an interview. "When I compare Libya to the long time we
had to scream in the desert about Bosnia, I must agree that despite
all our disagreements, Sarkozy did a very good job."
He is known simply as B.H.L., a man of inherited wealth, a socialist
whose trademarks — flowing hair, black suits, unbuttoned white shirts,
thin blond women — can undercut his passionate campaigning on public
causes, including stopping genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia, strong
support for Israel and an early critique of France's unthinking
fascination with Communism, revolution and the Soviet Union.
His flamboyant advocacy has annoyed many in the past, including the
current foreign minister, Alain Juppé, who seemed largely excluded
from Mr. Lévy's Libyan initiative. Mr. Lévy negotiated directly with
Mr. Sarkozy, with whom Mr. Lévy has an extremely complicated
relationship going back to 1983.
While they were friends and once vacationed together, Mr. Lévy openly
supported Mr. Sarkozy's Socialist opponent in the 2007 presidential
election; Mr. Sarkozy then married Carla Bruni, who had broken up the
marriage of Mr. Lévy's daughter, Justine, who wrote a novel about it.
Still, Mr. Lévy also had close ties with François Mitterrand and
Jacques Chirac, using his media and family connections — the
industrialist François Pinault is his godfather — to push for action
on the most pressing human rights issues of the day.
BUT he has outdone himself on Libya, playing to Mr. Sarkozy's vanity
and need for success as well as gratifying his own, and it is hard to
say who used the other more.
It is an extraordinary tale, about which neither the Élysée Palace nor
the Foreign Ministry wished to comment, other than quietly urging a
grain of salt. Mr. Lévy was in Egypt at the tail end of the Tahrir
Square uprising, went to the Libyan border but had pressing business
in Paris. But on Feb. 27, before returning to North Africa, he called
Mr. Sarkozy, asking if he was interested in making contact with the
rebels. He was, so Mr. Lévy rented a plane and flew to Marsa Matrouh,
the Egyptian airport closest to Libya.
Accompanied by his oldest friend and longtime collaborator, Gilles
Hertzog, and, of course, a photographer, Marc Roussel, Mr. Lévy walked
across the border past hundreds of yards of refugees and foreign
workers and flagged down a car, which was delivering vegetables every
20 miles on the way to Tobruk, the first Libyan city inside the
border. He then went to Bayda, where he found Mustafa Mohammed Abdul
Jalil, the former Libyan minister of justice and leader of the Interim
Transitional National Council.
On March 3, Mr. Lévy attended an early meeting of the council with Mr.
Jalil in Benghazi in a colonial villa by the sea. He made a little
speech about liberty and justice, said that Mr. Sarkozy was a
political descendant of Charles de Gaulle, and asked if they would
like him to call Mr. Sarkozy and try to arrange a meeting.
Unsurprisingly, they said yes, but first insisted that France "make a
gesture." Mr. Lévy called Mr. Sarkozy on an old satellite phone and
Mr. Sarkozy agreed. On Saturday, March 5, France issued a press
release, largely unnoticed everywhere except in Benghazi, greeting the
formation of the transitional council.
OVERNIGHT, Mr. Lévy said, French flags festooned Benghazi, with a huge
tricolor on the court building serving as opposition headquarters. On
Sunday, Mr. Lévy drove the 10 hours back to the airport and flew back
to Paris, and on Monday morning called Mr. Sarkozy on a better phone
line and went to meet him. They agreed, he said, to keep the
initiative a secret, even from the Foreign Ministry, though Prime
Minister David Cameron of Britain was informed Wednesday evening.
On Thursday morning, a Libyan delegation, headed by Mahmoud Jibril,
the de facto foreign minister, sat with Mr. Lévy in Mr. Sarkozy's
office. There Mr. Sarkozy agreed to recognize the opposition as the
legitimate government of Libya, which shocked other European capitals
and the French Foreign Ministry alike. He agreed to exchange
ambassadors and to bomb three airports when he could.
According to Mr. Lévy, Mr. Sarkozy said he would work on getting
international support and a United Nations Security Council
resolution, but if he failed, he and Mr. Cameron might go ahead anyway
with the mandate of the European Union, the Arab League and the
African Union. Mr. Sarkozy swore them to secrecy on this "Plan B," but
told them to speak of everything else as they liked, Mr. Lévy said. He
said Mr. Sarkozy told them, "My resolution is total."
Convincing Washington was crucial. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton was coming to Paris for a Group of 8 foreign ministers'
meeting on Monday, March 14, and wanted to meet Mr. Jibril. The Qatar
Embassy facilitated his travel from Doha, Mr. Lévy said, and he went
to Bourget airport to pick him up for a scheduled 4 p.m. meeting with
Mrs. Clinton. But the Élysée had not been informed, and Mr. Jibril was
held for two hours, until 5 p.m., before he was allowed into France.
The meeting was rescheduled for 10 p.m. at Mrs. Clinton's hotel after
a Group of 8 dinner at the Élysée.
Mr. Lévy brought Mr. Jibril, who was staying with him, to the hotel,
spent a few minutes with him and Mrs. Clinton, then left the room as
the two spoke for nearly an hour. Afterward, Mr. Jibril was
disconsolate, believing that he had failed to sway Mrs. Clinton. He
insisted on leaving the hotel through a back entrance, to avoid
waiting journalists.
At Mr. Lévy's apartment he, Mr. Hertzog and Mr. Lévy, all of them
depressed, stayed up until 2 a.m. on March 15 writing an appeal to the
world, what Mr. Lévy called "our last card." But they did not issue
it, and at 3 p.m., Mr. Sarkozy called Mr. Lévy to say that "the
American position is shifting."
Mr. Sarkozy then hit the phones, Mr. Juppé flew to New York and by the
time of the Security Council vote, on Thursday, March 17, Washington
voted along with France and Britain for a resolution authorizing the
use of force in Libya to protect the civilian population, while Russia
and China abstained. That night, Mr. Sarkozy called Mr. Lévy to tell
him, "We've won."
On Saturday, March 19, as Mr. Sarkozy hosted a luncheon summit on
Libya, the opposition called frantically for help. Qaddafi forces had
reached the suburbs of Benghazi. That afternoon, France began the
bombing, to general political applause at home, even from the
Socialists. Mr. Lévy feels that he has helped to save lives and that
Mr. Sarkozy has done the right thing, leading a diplomatic effort to
intervene to save the entire "Arab spring" and "all the hopes it has
raised."
He claims to be indifferent to those who mock him. "What happened is
more important than all the criticism," Mr. Levy said. "We avoided a
bloodbath in Benghazi."
person responsible for this is described by this article. We should
always appreciate any help that people give to us, especially when it
can tip the balance of success or failure. Of course, the young people
who fought for their rights in Libya should be congratulated but to be
real heros, they must win the fight. Otherwise, they will just be
fighters, fighting for justice. In order to win, we must use our
brains and must never be too arrogant. We must request for help
whenever we can. Many people will just help without even asking for
anything in return. Of course, it is our courtesy to repay their
kindness whenever we have the opportunities.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/02/world/africa/02levy.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
# The New York Times Reprints
This copy is for your personal, noncommercial use only. You can order
presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients
or customers here or use the "Reprints" tool that appears next to any
article. Visit www.nytreprints.com for samples and additional
information. Order a reprint of this article now.
April 1, 2011
By His Own Reckoning, One Man Made Libya a French Cause
By STEVEN ERLANGER
PARIS
BERNARD-HENRI LÉVY, 62, is such an inescapable figure in France — of
mockery, admiration, amusement, envy — that he is by now
unembarrassable. Making his mark young as a philosopher, he was
satirized neatly by a critic with the words: "God is dead, but my hair
is perfect."
But in the space of roughly two weeks, Mr. Lévy managed to get a
fledgling Libyan opposition group a hearing from the president of
France and the American secretary of state, a process that has led
both countries and NATO into waging war against the forces of the
Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
It was Mr. Lévy, by his own still undisputed account, who brought top
members of the Libyan opposition — the Interim Transitional National
Council — from Benghazi to Paris to meet President Nicolas Sarkozy on
March 10, who suggested the unprecedented French recognition of the
council as the legitimate government of Libya and who warned Mr.
Sarkozy that unless he acted, "there will be a massacre in Benghazi, a
bloodbath, and the blood of the people of Benghazi will stain the flag
of France."
Mr. Lévy, a celebrated philosopher, journalist and public
intellectual, gives Mr. Sarkozy sole credit for persuading London,
Washington and others to support intervention in Libya.
"I'm proud of my country, which I haven't felt for many years," Mr.
Lévy said in an interview. "When I compare Libya to the long time we
had to scream in the desert about Bosnia, I must agree that despite
all our disagreements, Sarkozy did a very good job."
He is known simply as B.H.L., a man of inherited wealth, a socialist
whose trademarks — flowing hair, black suits, unbuttoned white shirts,
thin blond women — can undercut his passionate campaigning on public
causes, including stopping genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia, strong
support for Israel and an early critique of France's unthinking
fascination with Communism, revolution and the Soviet Union.
His flamboyant advocacy has annoyed many in the past, including the
current foreign minister, Alain Juppé, who seemed largely excluded
from Mr. Lévy's Libyan initiative. Mr. Lévy negotiated directly with
Mr. Sarkozy, with whom Mr. Lévy has an extremely complicated
relationship going back to 1983.
While they were friends and once vacationed together, Mr. Lévy openly
supported Mr. Sarkozy's Socialist opponent in the 2007 presidential
election; Mr. Sarkozy then married Carla Bruni, who had broken up the
marriage of Mr. Lévy's daughter, Justine, who wrote a novel about it.
Still, Mr. Lévy also had close ties with François Mitterrand and
Jacques Chirac, using his media and family connections — the
industrialist François Pinault is his godfather — to push for action
on the most pressing human rights issues of the day.
BUT he has outdone himself on Libya, playing to Mr. Sarkozy's vanity
and need for success as well as gratifying his own, and it is hard to
say who used the other more.
It is an extraordinary tale, about which neither the Élysée Palace nor
the Foreign Ministry wished to comment, other than quietly urging a
grain of salt. Mr. Lévy was in Egypt at the tail end of the Tahrir
Square uprising, went to the Libyan border but had pressing business
in Paris. But on Feb. 27, before returning to North Africa, he called
Mr. Sarkozy, asking if he was interested in making contact with the
rebels. He was, so Mr. Lévy rented a plane and flew to Marsa Matrouh,
the Egyptian airport closest to Libya.
Accompanied by his oldest friend and longtime collaborator, Gilles
Hertzog, and, of course, a photographer, Marc Roussel, Mr. Lévy walked
across the border past hundreds of yards of refugees and foreign
workers and flagged down a car, which was delivering vegetables every
20 miles on the way to Tobruk, the first Libyan city inside the
border. He then went to Bayda, where he found Mustafa Mohammed Abdul
Jalil, the former Libyan minister of justice and leader of the Interim
Transitional National Council.
On March 3, Mr. Lévy attended an early meeting of the council with Mr.
Jalil in Benghazi in a colonial villa by the sea. He made a little
speech about liberty and justice, said that Mr. Sarkozy was a
political descendant of Charles de Gaulle, and asked if they would
like him to call Mr. Sarkozy and try to arrange a meeting.
Unsurprisingly, they said yes, but first insisted that France "make a
gesture." Mr. Lévy called Mr. Sarkozy on an old satellite phone and
Mr. Sarkozy agreed. On Saturday, March 5, France issued a press
release, largely unnoticed everywhere except in Benghazi, greeting the
formation of the transitional council.
OVERNIGHT, Mr. Lévy said, French flags festooned Benghazi, with a huge
tricolor on the court building serving as opposition headquarters. On
Sunday, Mr. Lévy drove the 10 hours back to the airport and flew back
to Paris, and on Monday morning called Mr. Sarkozy on a better phone
line and went to meet him. They agreed, he said, to keep the
initiative a secret, even from the Foreign Ministry, though Prime
Minister David Cameron of Britain was informed Wednesday evening.
On Thursday morning, a Libyan delegation, headed by Mahmoud Jibril,
the de facto foreign minister, sat with Mr. Lévy in Mr. Sarkozy's
office. There Mr. Sarkozy agreed to recognize the opposition as the
legitimate government of Libya, which shocked other European capitals
and the French Foreign Ministry alike. He agreed to exchange
ambassadors and to bomb three airports when he could.
According to Mr. Lévy, Mr. Sarkozy said he would work on getting
international support and a United Nations Security Council
resolution, but if he failed, he and Mr. Cameron might go ahead anyway
with the mandate of the European Union, the Arab League and the
African Union. Mr. Sarkozy swore them to secrecy on this "Plan B," but
told them to speak of everything else as they liked, Mr. Lévy said. He
said Mr. Sarkozy told them, "My resolution is total."
Convincing Washington was crucial. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton was coming to Paris for a Group of 8 foreign ministers'
meeting on Monday, March 14, and wanted to meet Mr. Jibril. The Qatar
Embassy facilitated his travel from Doha, Mr. Lévy said, and he went
to Bourget airport to pick him up for a scheduled 4 p.m. meeting with
Mrs. Clinton. But the Élysée had not been informed, and Mr. Jibril was
held for two hours, until 5 p.m., before he was allowed into France.
The meeting was rescheduled for 10 p.m. at Mrs. Clinton's hotel after
a Group of 8 dinner at the Élysée.
Mr. Lévy brought Mr. Jibril, who was staying with him, to the hotel,
spent a few minutes with him and Mrs. Clinton, then left the room as
the two spoke for nearly an hour. Afterward, Mr. Jibril was
disconsolate, believing that he had failed to sway Mrs. Clinton. He
insisted on leaving the hotel through a back entrance, to avoid
waiting journalists.
At Mr. Lévy's apartment he, Mr. Hertzog and Mr. Lévy, all of them
depressed, stayed up until 2 a.m. on March 15 writing an appeal to the
world, what Mr. Lévy called "our last card." But they did not issue
it, and at 3 p.m., Mr. Sarkozy called Mr. Lévy to say that "the
American position is shifting."
Mr. Sarkozy then hit the phones, Mr. Juppé flew to New York and by the
time of the Security Council vote, on Thursday, March 17, Washington
voted along with France and Britain for a resolution authorizing the
use of force in Libya to protect the civilian population, while Russia
and China abstained. That night, Mr. Sarkozy called Mr. Lévy to tell
him, "We've won."
On Saturday, March 19, as Mr. Sarkozy hosted a luncheon summit on
Libya, the opposition called frantically for help. Qaddafi forces had
reached the suburbs of Benghazi. That afternoon, France began the
bombing, to general political applause at home, even from the
Socialists. Mr. Lévy feels that he has helped to save lives and that
Mr. Sarkozy has done the right thing, leading a diplomatic effort to
intervene to save the entire "Arab spring" and "all the hopes it has
raised."
He claims to be indifferent to those who mock him. "What happened is
more important than all the criticism," Mr. Levy said. "We avoided a
bloodbath in Benghazi."
Cheaper and save more lives by Targeting Gadafi
There is no point and very expensive in attacking the military who are
threatening civilians in Libya. 1 billion US had been spent and more
will be spent.
Just by targeting Gadafi and people around him, would be much more
cost effective. Do not bother with civilian casualties. Even civilians
who hate Gadafi do not mind being bombed accidentally as shown by the
rescue of the US airmen in Benghazi. Anyone who supports and protects
Gadafi are also guilty of the crimes against humanity and deserve the
death penalty so if they are found supporting and nearing the places
that Gadafi was found, they should be bombed. If they die, they
deserve it.
For Muslims, it is very clear that supporting murderers mean that they
are no longer Muslims. Even by not doing anything to stop Gadafi ALSO
MEANS that their faith is compromised because Prophet Muhammad already
stated clearly that to hate a crime silently in ones heart only,
instead of stopping it physically or vocally, means that ones faith in
Islam is the WEAKEST.
It shows how bad Muslims are all over the world. Only Qatar and UAE
are real Muslims. The rest are just hypocrites. And this includes the
Saudi Arabia. They are only Muslims in name.
In fact it is the French that is the best in the world. They support
the rebel, whose sole purpose was to topple Gadafi, i.e. to stop the
slaughter of innocent civilians. Followed by USA and UK.
threatening civilians in Libya. 1 billion US had been spent and more
will be spent.
Just by targeting Gadafi and people around him, would be much more
cost effective. Do not bother with civilian casualties. Even civilians
who hate Gadafi do not mind being bombed accidentally as shown by the
rescue of the US airmen in Benghazi. Anyone who supports and protects
Gadafi are also guilty of the crimes against humanity and deserve the
death penalty so if they are found supporting and nearing the places
that Gadafi was found, they should be bombed. If they die, they
deserve it.
For Muslims, it is very clear that supporting murderers mean that they
are no longer Muslims. Even by not doing anything to stop Gadafi ALSO
MEANS that their faith is compromised because Prophet Muhammad already
stated clearly that to hate a crime silently in ones heart only,
instead of stopping it physically or vocally, means that ones faith in
Islam is the WEAKEST.
It shows how bad Muslims are all over the world. Only Qatar and UAE
are real Muslims. The rest are just hypocrites. And this includes the
Saudi Arabia. They are only Muslims in name.
In fact it is the French that is the best in the world. They support
the rebel, whose sole purpose was to topple Gadafi, i.e. to stop the
slaughter of innocent civilians. Followed by USA and UK.
Reasons why Muslims hate USA
Muslims are beginning to realise that USA under Obama, wants to help
humanity.
It has always been this way but under Bush and the Republicans, it was
skewed towards Jewish humanity, to the point that Jewish lives are
much more important than Muslim lives.
USA had a history of supporting tyrannical dictators who appear to
support USA interests. These interests include raw material supplies
and trade opportunities. These trade opportunities do not include
theft of resources like what the Malaysian government had done to
Sabah. It was more of a monopoly of business opportunities. If you say
they are offering them at much higher prices, just compare USA with
Chinese contractors in Africa.
However when the Shah of Iran started killing innocent citizens, USA
was silent and appear to support the Shah in killing these people. The
Iranians reacted by violently hating USA and what it represents.
People don't react similarly when lives are concerned. You can steal
properties but all these can be replaced. When lives are lost, the
pain will remain forever.
Similarly for the Philippines. Although the USA didn't fully support
the Marcos regime, by being silent on the atrocities committed by
Marcos, USA was deemed by the majority of Filipinos as equally liable.
Of course, the hatred is not as great as the Iranians who suffer
terrible deaths.
In Libya, Gadafi is not liked by Libyans as well as Americans. By
supporting the lives of the ordinary citizens of Libya, they are
beginning to like USA but not so much because of USA outstanding
support for Jewish and its silence and apparent support for the
atrocities committed by the Jewish regime in Israel.
The Islamalists themselves had made mistakes. They have hated the
wrong people. USA is a democracy, not matter how imperfect it is. Its
leaders are elected by the people so the leaders will change with
time.Especially when the majority of USA citizens are idiots who can
be persuaded to vote for idiots like Bush.
Should we expect more from USA? We cannot because they are just human
beings like all of us. Just because they are advanced does not mean
that the majority of them are not idiots like the rest of humanity.
Only the very few can be brilliant. Let us hope, the brilliant and
intelligent will lead USA and the rest for world, instead of the
lying, cruel and in-compassionate leaders like Gadafi. Anybody who
support such in-compassionate leaders are equally guilty of mass
murder and it does not matter how religious you claim yourself to be.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703712504576237042432212406.html#printMode
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* The Wall Street Journal
* MIDDLE EAST NEWS
* APRIL 2, 2011
Ex-Mujahedeen Help Lead Libyan Rebels
* Article
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* Comments
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* larger Text smaller
By CHARLES LEVINSON
[LIBJIHAD] Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Libyans in the eastern town of Derna shout anti-Gadhafi slogans in a
protest in February.
DARNA, Libya—Two former Afghan Mujahedeen and a six-year detainee at
Guantanamo Bay have stepped to the fore of this city's military
campaign, training new recruits for the front and to protect the city
from infiltrators loyal to Col. Moammar Gadhafi.
The presence of Islamists like these amid the opposition has raised
concerns, among some fellow rebels as well as their Western allies,
that the goal of some Libyan fighters in battling Col. Gadhafi is to
propagate Islamist extremism.
Regional Upheaval
Track events day by day.
View Interactive
View Interactive
View Slideshow
[SB10001424052748703712504576236213068821804]
Mahmud Hams/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
A rebel rested before leaving Ajdabiya, Libya, Friday.
* More photos and interactive graphics
Abdel Hakim al-Hasady, an influential Islamic preacher and high-school
teacher who spent five years at a training camp in eastern
Afghanistan, oversees the recruitment, training and deployment of
about 300 rebel fighters from Darna.
Mr. Hasady's field commander on the front lines is Salah al-Barrani, a
former fighter from the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, or LIFG, which
was formed in the 1990s by Libyan mujahedeen returning home after
helping to drive the Soviets from Afghanistan and dedicated to ousting
Mr. Gadhafi from power.
Sufyan Ben Qumu, a Libyan army veteran who worked for Osama bin
Laden's holding company in Sudan and later for an al Qaeda-linked
charity in Afghanistan, is training many of the city's rebel recruits.
Both Messrs. Hasady and Ben Qumu were picked up by Pakistani
authorities after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and
were turned over to the U.S. Mr. Hasady was released to Libyan custody
two months later. Mr. Ben Qumu spent six years at Guantanamo Bay
before he was turned over to Libyan custody in 2007.
They were both released from Libyan prisons in 2008 as part of a
reconciliation with Islamists in Libya.
Islamist leaders and their contingent of followers represent a
relatively small minority within the rebel cause. They have served the
rebels' secular leadership with little friction. Their discipline and
fighting experience is badly needed by the rebels' ragtag army.
Among his followers, Mr. Hasady has the reputation of a trained
warrior who stood fearlessly at the front ranks of young protesters
during the first days of the uprising.
And his discourse has become dramatically more pro-American, now that
he stands in alliance with the West in a battle against Col. Gadhafi.
"Our view is starting to change of the U.S.," said Mr. Hasady. "If we
hated the Americans 100%, today it is less than 50%. They have started
to redeem themselves for their past mistakes by helping us to preserve
the blood of our children."
Mr. Hasady also offered a reconsideration of his past approach. "No
Islamist revolution has ever succeeded. Only when the whole population
was included did we succeed, and that means a more inclusive
ideology."
Messrs. Ben Qumu and Barrani were on the front lines and couldn't be
reached for comment.
Some rebel leaders are wary of their roles. "Many of us were concerned
about these people's backgrounds," said Ashour Abu Rashed, one of
Darna's representatives on the rebel's provisional government body,
the Transitional National Council.
"Al-Hasady told me he only wants to remove Gadhafi and will serve
under the authority of the local governing councils, and so far he has
been true to his word."
After the uprising began in Libya, Mr. Hasady told several journalists
that he had joined the fight against the Americans during his time in
Afghanistan. He now says he was misquoted and that he only settled in
Afghanistan because Islamists of his ilk were unwelcome everywhere
else.
View Full Image
LIBJIHAD
LIBJIHAD
LIBJIHAD
For the U.S., the situation recalls the problems that followed
America's ill-fated alliance with the Afghan Mujahedeen fighting the
Soviets in the 1980s. Many went on to al Qaeda and other violent
radical Islamist groups.
Adm. James Stavridis, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's supreme
allied commander in Europe, pointed to this concern when he told a
Senate committee on Tuesday that U.S. intelligence has picked up
"flickers" of al Qaeda among rebel groups in Libya. He also said they
were a minor element among the rebels.
Col. Gadhafi has gone out of his way to paint the popular uprising
against his rule as an al Qaeda plot. He has singled out Mr. Hasady
and the city of Darna as the capital of an alleged Islamist emirate, a
baseless claim.
Local enmity for the Libyan leader runs deep. The first uprising
against Col. Gadhafi's rule took place in Darna in 1970, less than a
year after he seized power. The city proudly boasts that the first
political prisoner killed by the Gadhafi regime was a Darna native.
Write to Charles Levinson at charles.levinson@wsj.com
humanity.
It has always been this way but under Bush and the Republicans, it was
skewed towards Jewish humanity, to the point that Jewish lives are
much more important than Muslim lives.
USA had a history of supporting tyrannical dictators who appear to
support USA interests. These interests include raw material supplies
and trade opportunities. These trade opportunities do not include
theft of resources like what the Malaysian government had done to
Sabah. It was more of a monopoly of business opportunities. If you say
they are offering them at much higher prices, just compare USA with
Chinese contractors in Africa.
However when the Shah of Iran started killing innocent citizens, USA
was silent and appear to support the Shah in killing these people. The
Iranians reacted by violently hating USA and what it represents.
People don't react similarly when lives are concerned. You can steal
properties but all these can be replaced. When lives are lost, the
pain will remain forever.
Similarly for the Philippines. Although the USA didn't fully support
the Marcos regime, by being silent on the atrocities committed by
Marcos, USA was deemed by the majority of Filipinos as equally liable.
Of course, the hatred is not as great as the Iranians who suffer
terrible deaths.
In Libya, Gadafi is not liked by Libyans as well as Americans. By
supporting the lives of the ordinary citizens of Libya, they are
beginning to like USA but not so much because of USA outstanding
support for Jewish and its silence and apparent support for the
atrocities committed by the Jewish regime in Israel.
The Islamalists themselves had made mistakes. They have hated the
wrong people. USA is a democracy, not matter how imperfect it is. Its
leaders are elected by the people so the leaders will change with
time.Especially when the majority of USA citizens are idiots who can
be persuaded to vote for idiots like Bush.
Should we expect more from USA? We cannot because they are just human
beings like all of us. Just because they are advanced does not mean
that the majority of them are not idiots like the rest of humanity.
Only the very few can be brilliant. Let us hope, the brilliant and
intelligent will lead USA and the rest for world, instead of the
lying, cruel and in-compassionate leaders like Gadafi. Anybody who
support such in-compassionate leaders are equally guilty of mass
murder and it does not matter how religious you claim yourself to be.
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* The Wall Street Journal
* MIDDLE EAST NEWS
* APRIL 2, 2011
Ex-Mujahedeen Help Lead Libyan Rebels
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By CHARLES LEVINSON
[LIBJIHAD] Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Libyans in the eastern town of Derna shout anti-Gadhafi slogans in a
protest in February.
DARNA, Libya—Two former Afghan Mujahedeen and a six-year detainee at
Guantanamo Bay have stepped to the fore of this city's military
campaign, training new recruits for the front and to protect the city
from infiltrators loyal to Col. Moammar Gadhafi.
The presence of Islamists like these amid the opposition has raised
concerns, among some fellow rebels as well as their Western allies,
that the goal of some Libyan fighters in battling Col. Gadhafi is to
propagate Islamist extremism.
Regional Upheaval
Track events day by day.
View Interactive
View Interactive
View Slideshow
[SB10001424052748703712504576236213068821804]
Mahmud Hams/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
A rebel rested before leaving Ajdabiya, Libya, Friday.
* More photos and interactive graphics
Abdel Hakim al-Hasady, an influential Islamic preacher and high-school
teacher who spent five years at a training camp in eastern
Afghanistan, oversees the recruitment, training and deployment of
about 300 rebel fighters from Darna.
Mr. Hasady's field commander on the front lines is Salah al-Barrani, a
former fighter from the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, or LIFG, which
was formed in the 1990s by Libyan mujahedeen returning home after
helping to drive the Soviets from Afghanistan and dedicated to ousting
Mr. Gadhafi from power.
Sufyan Ben Qumu, a Libyan army veteran who worked for Osama bin
Laden's holding company in Sudan and later for an al Qaeda-linked
charity in Afghanistan, is training many of the city's rebel recruits.
Both Messrs. Hasady and Ben Qumu were picked up by Pakistani
authorities after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and
were turned over to the U.S. Mr. Hasady was released to Libyan custody
two months later. Mr. Ben Qumu spent six years at Guantanamo Bay
before he was turned over to Libyan custody in 2007.
They were both released from Libyan prisons in 2008 as part of a
reconciliation with Islamists in Libya.
Islamist leaders and their contingent of followers represent a
relatively small minority within the rebel cause. They have served the
rebels' secular leadership with little friction. Their discipline and
fighting experience is badly needed by the rebels' ragtag army.
Among his followers, Mr. Hasady has the reputation of a trained
warrior who stood fearlessly at the front ranks of young protesters
during the first days of the uprising.
And his discourse has become dramatically more pro-American, now that
he stands in alliance with the West in a battle against Col. Gadhafi.
"Our view is starting to change of the U.S.," said Mr. Hasady. "If we
hated the Americans 100%, today it is less than 50%. They have started
to redeem themselves for their past mistakes by helping us to preserve
the blood of our children."
Mr. Hasady also offered a reconsideration of his past approach. "No
Islamist revolution has ever succeeded. Only when the whole population
was included did we succeed, and that means a more inclusive
ideology."
Messrs. Ben Qumu and Barrani were on the front lines and couldn't be
reached for comment.
Some rebel leaders are wary of their roles. "Many of us were concerned
about these people's backgrounds," said Ashour Abu Rashed, one of
Darna's representatives on the rebel's provisional government body,
the Transitional National Council.
"Al-Hasady told me he only wants to remove Gadhafi and will serve
under the authority of the local governing councils, and so far he has
been true to his word."
After the uprising began in Libya, Mr. Hasady told several journalists
that he had joined the fight against the Americans during his time in
Afghanistan. He now says he was misquoted and that he only settled in
Afghanistan because Islamists of his ilk were unwelcome everywhere
else.
View Full Image
LIBJIHAD
LIBJIHAD
LIBJIHAD
For the U.S., the situation recalls the problems that followed
America's ill-fated alliance with the Afghan Mujahedeen fighting the
Soviets in the 1980s. Many went on to al Qaeda and other violent
radical Islamist groups.
Adm. James Stavridis, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's supreme
allied commander in Europe, pointed to this concern when he told a
Senate committee on Tuesday that U.S. intelligence has picked up
"flickers" of al Qaeda among rebel groups in Libya. He also said they
were a minor element among the rebels.
Col. Gadhafi has gone out of his way to paint the popular uprising
against his rule as an al Qaeda plot. He has singled out Mr. Hasady
and the city of Darna as the capital of an alleged Islamist emirate, a
baseless claim.
Local enmity for the Libyan leader runs deep. The first uprising
against Col. Gadhafi's rule took place in Darna in 1970, less than a
year after he seized power. The city proudly boasts that the first
political prisoner killed by the Gadhafi regime was a Darna native.
Write to Charles Levinson at charles.levinson@wsj.com
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